Three Days
by mindofadreamer
Summary: 3x09 speculation one shot. Oliver goes on his own to fight Ra's Al Ghul. When he doesn't return in a few days, Felicity and Team Arrow begin to believe the worst.


He left a week ago.

Left to go fight the most evil man the world has ever known on his own. He only came to her to tell her where we planned to go. He had given the other his goodbyes, they just didn't know it would possibly be his final goodbye.

He owed her at least this goodbye. If he didn't give her this goodbye, he knows that she would hold on to the hope that he would _maybe_ come back one day.

_"Stop dangling maybes,"_ she had once urged him.

She wasn't interested in maybes and he wished that he could tell her that he would be back. That he could defeat Ra's Al Ghul on his on, but this is something he had no certainty on what the outcome of their dual would be. Instead he left her with an "I really do love you," and a request to tell their team where he had gone in the morning. He would be long gone by then so no one could stop him.

She begged him not to do it. She knew his response would be that he had to this. He had to do it for Starling, for Sara, for Thea the long list goes on and on everyday in his brooding mind. She knew there was no way she could stop him because his mind was set. He was too stubborn, just like her. He walked away, walked off to death. It reminded her of when he did those many months ago when the faced Slade. She had grasped his hand quickly, practically on instinct in order to tell him one last thing before he was gone. He turned back to face her.

"I love you too," she admitted tearfully, "please, _please_ come back."

His face had softened as he took step back towards her to place a tender kiss on her forehead. She closed her eyes and tears escaped when she opened them he was gone.

She broke down and sobbed until she ran out of tears. She doesn't remember how long she sat on the cold floor on the foundry floor. Diggle and Roy had found her sitting there in the morning, hugging her knees staring ahead. They had come for their morning training, which they had immediately forgot as soon as they had seen her. She was never there in the morning, seeing as she is the only one with an actual job outside their vigilante lifestyle.

Diggle had asked her if she was okay and she remained silent. Her silence is what had ticked Diggle and Roy off to something being wrong, her and silence were never on the same basis. Diggle crouched down in front of her in order to get her attention, urging her to tell him what was wrong. She asked Diggle what the time was, Diggle sighed and informed her that in was nine in the morning.

"Crap I'm late for work," she had muttered absentmindedly but she never made a move to get up from her spot.

"You gonna tell me what wrong?" Diggle tried again.

She let it all roll off her chest, breaking down telling Roy and Diggle where their team leader had gone and what he planned to do. They were angry, as she had predicted. They cursed their friend's stubbornness and quickly bursting into plans to go after him. She quietly reminded them how futile their efforts would be, but told them she would do whatever they needed her to do. She told them that they he had three days to return on his on or by some miracle be found by them. After then they needed to assume the worst.

They worked for the next three days as hard as they could. She called Ray to tell him she had the flu and needed a few days off. He immediately asked if she merely wanted time off because of the kiss they shared. She heatedly told him that she didn't need to compromise her professionalism for hurt feelings and if he thought that lowly of her why did she hire him in the first place? She later texted him apologizing saying that her being sick makes her cranky and that she'd see him in a few days.

She spent hours hacking into international databases, Diggle and Lyla searched for sources in A.R.G.U.S., and Roy and Laurel kept the home front safe from the small issues that Starling faced.

Nothing was coming up, every lead ran cold, and he wasn't back in three days. She kept running facial recognition and she refused to give up. Even if he wasn't alive they needed at least his body to bury to give the rest of the team and his sister the opportunity to give a proper goodbye. It was day five when Diggle forcibly removed her from her computers and told her that she needed to sleep and take care of herself. He wouldn't have wanted her to waste her life in this cave searching for a ghost. Diggle knew that for a fact and so did she. She broke down in her friend's arms and he held her in his strong, protective arms while she cried. Diggle took her back to his and Lyla's place and she had slept on their couch until noon of day seven.

She returned back to foundry to get back to her search, when she got there it was empty. Her teammates were grieving as well and this was their fallen friend's home. This place carries too many memories for their pain to handle right now. She worked into the early hours of day eight, she finally hung her head in defeat and glanced off to the side spying his old cot in the corner. She dejectedly shuffled over toward it and lied down on it. The sheets and pillow smelled like him and it made her weep.

"Felicity?"

Her eyes snapped opened and her body shot up from the cot. She turned her head to where the familiar voice had come from.

There he was standing at the bottom of the stairs, face covered in bruises and fresh scars. He stood there staring at her, letting her emotions sink in.

She got off of the cot her chest heaving and a million emotions running through her body.

"You-you…."she struggled to find the right word and emotion to choose and he just stands frozen where he is. "YOU ABSOLUTE JERK!"

Guess we are going with anger, she thought to herself. His eyebrows raised in shock and she swore she could see a smidge of amusement behind those exhausted eyes.

"Do you have any idea how much you have put everyone who loves you through?!"

He opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off before he could get a peep out.

"OH NO, no you do not get to speak right now, Oliver Queen! Not after you tell me that that you are going off on a suicide mission alone, telling me that you love me, and that I should expect you to be dead if you weren't back and there days! You are the biggest ass and inconsiderate idiot I have ever met! You are so going to wish that Ra's Al Ghul killed you by the time I am through with you, buddy."

She begins marching towards him, still rambling about in anger about how much of an ass he is.

"Where the hell have you been for the past FIVE DAYS?! We all thought you were dead!"

She is now standing a foot away from him and she is about to start yelling again when he suddenly closes the space between them, capturing her lips in a blazing and desperate kiss. She stumbles back for a moment from her surprise, but quickly melts into the kiss wrapping her arms around his shoulders. He wraps his arms around her waist pulling her as close as possible, which leaves her feet dangling a few inches of the ground. After a few moments she pulls away and he presses his forehead against hers, still holding her close.

"I thought you were dead," she whispers with a broken voice. He pulls is head back to look at her face and her eyes are screwed shut to keep herself from crying.

"I'm so sorry," he murmurs, giving her a squeeze of reassurance "I promise I will tell you everything that happened, but can we just stay like this for a little longer?"

She opens her eyes to the pleading tone in his voice. She gives him a small smile and nod before softly pressing another soft kiss to his lips. She then curls her head into his chest and moves her arms from his shoulders to his midsection hugging him back.

And that's how they stayed for hours.


End file.
